Title
October 22, 1968: BSU holds rally outside to protest discrimination
Description
Approximately 500 students rallied outside the home economics building for nearly three hours on Tuesday, October 22, 1968. The impassioned student speakers and "tense" state troopers inside the building charged the atmosphere. When students met resistance entering the building, BSU president, Bob McLeod, negotiated access with the Vice President for Student Affairs J. Winston Martin in exchange for assurances protestors would not disrupt classes. The rally remained nonviolent. Editorials characterized Martin as a sympathetic outlier of the administration in contrast to Robert A. Beach, the assistant to the president for university relations.
The rally ended peacefully without law enforcement intervention. UMD students were not the first in the nation to protest, nor would they be the last; however, the event is significant to the university's history because it demonstrated the shift in the Black collective and created a legacy for future activists.
The gathering outside Marie Mount Hall predated the UMD students who demonstrated on campus against the Vietnam War in 1970.
The rally ended peacefully without law enforcement intervention. UMD students were not the first in the nation to protest, nor would they be the last; however, the event is significant to the university's history because it demonstrated the shift in the Black collective and created a legacy for future activists.
The gathering outside Marie Mount Hall predated the UMD students who demonstrated on campus against the Vietnam War in 1970.
Relation
Were there really no other student sympathizers within the administration? If University Archives were open, we would comb through the Office of the President files to look for evidence of how the President and other campus officials responded to the event behind closed doors.
Did this event foster the sense of racial solidarity the BSU hoped to achieve?
What informal networks existed between Black student activists across the country? Were UMD students thinking about the successful takeover of UC Santa Barbara's computer center in North Hall by twelve Black students just eight days before?
Did this event foster the sense of racial solidarity the BSU hoped to achieve?
What informal networks existed between Black student activists across the country? Were UMD students thinking about the successful takeover of UC Santa Barbara's computer center in North Hall by twelve Black students just eight days before?